What Heroes Don't Think About
by She Who Loves Pineapples
Summary: Didi and her brother run away from the cult they were raised in to take on the roles of heroes. But the road to heroism is neither cleanly paved nor brightly lit. There are some things Didi just tries not to think about. Like, her boss's creepy underground torture chamber. And her brother's deep-dark secret. And how she has little siblings at home, and no idea how to save them.
1. The pitying rain began to fall

**Author's Note: This is the story I've been neglecting all my other WIPs to work on! Like most Dungeons and Dragons fics on this site probably are, it is something of a novelization of a (now finished) campaign. However, I'm trying to put good storytelling ahead of actually matching what happened in the campaign perfectly, so it's not like I'm just uploading my session notes as a fanfiction.**

**This campaign borrowed some elements from the Princes of the Apocalypse and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist modules, but it diverges quite a bit. Also diverges, intentionally, from canonical Forgotten Realms lore. The story should be internally consistent to the best of my abilities, but it's inspired by the canon setting rather than, well, set in it. Few canon characters will show up, and those that may differ quite a bit from their canon selves. Hardcore fans of the setting who would be annoyed by that may want to skip over this fic. On the other hand, this story should work well as a stand-alone story to anyone familiar with basic fantasy tropes.**

**Any reviews would be appreciated. **

It was a dark and stormy day, which was perfect, because that was the best kind of weather for reading. And today was the day that Didi had finally saved up enough money to purchase a book. She hadn't been able to read in nearly a year. There had been no time to bring books from home when they'd left. Kaylessa, the harsh and cruel mistress forcing Didi into a dreary life of servitude, kept no books, and in the entire town of Red Larch there were no libraries.

Only Gaelker had books. Three books, to be exact. Didi had spotted them in his shop three months ago. One was a spell book, about as interesting to Didi as something written in Dwarvish. One was a blank journal. The last was an adventurer's biography. Didi would have preferred a novel, but at this point she would take anything. But before she'd even been able to read as far as the description on the book's inside cover, Gaelker had shouted at her to take the lye soap she'd been sent for and get out of his shop or he'd send her back to the town jail. Ever since then, she'd obsessed over the book as though it were the next volume in her favorite series, mind brimming over about the possible contents of the book. She'd been living off the leftover chickpea cakes and brothy soups from the Swinging Swords Inn kitchen, saving her meager earnings.

Gaelker did not pretend to welcome her when she arrived at his shop. "What do you want?" he asked, stretching the word "you" in a way that made it sound like a dirty word.

"Do you still have those books?" Didi asked, ignoring his tone.

His glare sharpened. "Yes."

His glare followed her as she skipped through the aisle to the dusty corner with the miscellaneous unwanted objects, picked up the book, and lovingly brushed off the dust. He shifted impatiently at her, and, eager to get back with the book herself, she obligingly set the book down on the counter and retrieved her collected coins. Gaelker made a point of counting them carefully, inspecting each piece as though he suspected it to be the result of illusion magic, but he didn't let his eyes stray too far from Didi, either. His attitude was almost enough to make her want to steal something from him out of principle, but he was watching too closely. He would notice. She wasn't afraid of him, but he would tell Kaylessa. Whenever Kaylessa found out that Didi stole something, she dragged Didi to the victim by the ear and made her apologize.

When at last Gaelker was satisfied with the authenticity of the coins, he huffed, as though frustrated he hadn't found a reason to call for her imprisonment. "There you go. Now git!" He grunted as he slammed the book on the table and waved her away.

It was pouring. She shoved the book down the front of her blouse and clung it close to her chest as she ran back to the inn, leaping over puddles. The rain itself less of a problem than the several carriages that passed her, splashing her from the side–fortunately, she heard them coming and had the foresight to shift the precious book to the side not facing the road.

To Didi's luck, Kaylessa was checking customers in at the front desk when Didi made it to the Inn. When she saw her she paused her transaction to gape at her. "Goodness, gracious, child! Where in the world have you been!? Go get changed into something presentable and get down here! They need you in the kitchen! And for goodness' sakes, take off those boots!"

The volume in the dining room as she passed by was unusual. Weather like this had urged the travelers in the forest to hurry to the next town, and discouraged the current guests from continuing their journeys. They were booked full. That meant no leftovers. Didi changed, set the (dry, thankfully) book down on her desk, and raced downstairs so she'd have a chance to snatch some food before it was gone.

* * *

It was hours (though it felt like centuries) later when the kitchen was closed up and cleaned to Kaylessa's satisfaction. The chaos of the dinner rush had not been enough to keep Didi's mind off the book; she'd performed her duties on autopilot until it was time to clean up, at which point she'd focused on working efficiently so she could go to her room. When the only dish left was the stained old pan and Didi's fingers were raisined and red, Kaylessa finally dismissed her. "Well done," Kaylessa said, looking over the tidy kitchen. "Good girl. You head on up to bed; I'll finish this last one. Just dump the mop water out on your way."

Didi's older brother, Dominic, was already in bed by the time she got there. He worked in the stables. At first, Kaylessa had tried to train both of them for both jobs and have them switch, but she realized Didi with her chattiness was better suited for customer service. Dominic did not complain, because as a stable boy he was allowed more frequent and thorough showers.

"I saved some bread for you!" she greeted him. His ears perked up, then fell again as he saw her remove the slices from her damp shirt.

He grimaced. "No, thanks."

"Suit yourself," she said, climbing into the bed and pulling the covers up over her. Kaylessa would spare only room for the both of them and one bed. Dominic scooted over to allow her space, then looked at her with a lazy curiosity.

"How's the book?"

"Haven't started it yet. I'll let you know if it's good."

"Okay," said Dominic.

Didi adjusted herself under the covers. Dominic watched her like he wanted to say something.

"What?" Didi asked.

"There were a couple of wanted posters on the sheriff's window today."

"And?"

"There are some wanted criminals with bounties."

"And?"

He paused for a long time before he answered, as though he expected her to read his mind and figure it out herself with enough time. "I think we should go for it," he finally said.

Didi reluctantly put her book down, and leaned back, thinking. "You wanna leave Red Larch?"

"No, we don't have to!" he said. "Not right away, anyway. We get the whole night off; we only need have that time to sleep."

"So we're supposed to sneak out, find a criminal, kill them, sneak back in with their head, go back to sleep, then wake-up and start making beds like it's a normal day, then sneak the severed criminal head over to the sheriff's on our lunch break?"

"Okay, fine then. We can leave," said Dominic.

Didi looked at her book. "What if we don't find any bounty?"

"We will! If not, we join another caravan and follow them until we get a more promising offer. We're not getting anywhere by staying here."

Didi couldn't argue with that. She was meant for better than this. She was bred and raised to be a leader, the fierce kind of leader who commanded respect with merit and, if necessary, brutality. She'd chosen to leave the brutality behind; she'd known ever since she could read that she'd rather be a hero than a villain. But heroes and villains were both very different things from being a maidservant. _That _was not what she was meant for. _Someday _she would take the skills that had been drilled into her, and she would use them to do great things.

But, for now, for a few more months at least, she was comfortable where she was.

"I'll think about it. Let me read my book."

"We can go tonight!" Dominic interrupted. "We can just... try. If we find someone, we bring them in, we get the bounty and we leave. If not, we come back. If we just had a little money to start with we wouldn't have to worry."

"I said I'd think about it," said Didi. "No way are we going tonight. I've been waiting to read this all day."

He sank back against the bed frame. "Okay."

Dominic was always thinking, never talking. They said people like that were the wisest. Didi didn't think so. Just because she talked a lot didn't mean she didn't think, too. Talking helped her think. And talking to other people kept her grounded. She didn't think of herself as smarter than her brother, but she was wiser; he was the one letting his head drift away and she was the one who had to tether his ideas before they got too outlandish.

The book was good. Not elegantly written, but it was about interesting things, and that was alright with Didi. She loved prose, but more than that she loved stories, be they written by well-educated elven aristocrats or dictated by tavern drunks. Her favorite genre was adventure with romance. This had adventure. It lacked romance, but it did have two important male characters - the human narrator, at this point a young squire, and his knight - who Didi could imagine falling in love, and was almost as good as an actual romantic adventure story.

But she was more tired than she thought. Before she knew it her eyelids were drooping. Before she could risk falling asleep and losing her place, she found a bookmark, put the book aside, and fell asleep dreaming of the characters in the story - a boy her age with soft curly hair and the knight with gentle arms underneath his coat of armor. Her fantasies were nothing scandalous, nothing too weird to think about while lying in bed next to her own brother, merely sweet and romantic. She fell asleep thinking of blushing romantic confessions and weddings in beautiful churches and cute elven boys with flowers in their hair.

It was just enough to soothe her, to make her feel cozy even though her bed was too small. Just enough to take her mind off her guilt. Just enough to give her dreams of fiction. Silly dreams to chase away the recurring nightmares, those guilty memories with the seven crying children, drowning or bleeding or starving and always asking how she could have left them when she knew what their mother was capable of.


	2. I will go alone

When Didi woke up in the early morning, Dominic wasn't there.

At first she wasn't worried. He was probably in the bathroom, sneaking in an extra shower. She opened her book to get in another chapter before she had to work. When the sun was up and Kaylessa was pounding on her door, she started to worry.

"Have you seen my brother?" Didi asked.

"Not since last night. Make your bed and get downstairs; the guests 'll be up soon!"

She did as told. She could only assume he'd gone off in search of the wanted criminals. He'd give up when he realized how unlikely he was to track someone down in half a night. He'd probably sneak back in during the afternoon lull. Kaylessa usually allowed them an hour's break then.

When that time came and went, and he STILL wasn't back, Didi began to worry.

"My brother's not home yet," said Didi. Kaylessa was wiping the lobby floor, a never-ending job, as more mud was tracked in every time someone came in.

"I noticed," Kaylessa said unhappily. "Those stables smelled like... well, like uncleared stables I guess. Had to muck 'em myself."

"I want to go look for him," said Didi.

"Well, then I guess you best get to prepping for dinner so you can get done early. Gonna be a busy night again."

She considered just leaving, but she wasn't quite worried enough for that yet. What if Dominic was still waiting for a chance to sneak back then? Then, she would have gotten herself in trouble for no good reason. And as much as didn't like being a maid, she didn't want to be fired and suddenly homeless again, either. Those first few months after running away had been horrible. Didi and Dominic had been thoroughly trained for combat and pillaging. They had not been trained to live off the land. It had been awful, going from place to place, never knowing where their next meal would come from or whether anyone approaching would be someone they could trade with for food or their mother's scouts coming to get them.

What if their mother _had_ found Dominic? Didi had started to feel comfortable in Red Larch, but maybe they had been stupid to stay there for so long. It was a small town, but people passed through. Rumors spread. People saw them and people noticed them. By herself, Didi might have been able to pass for a full-blooded human, to someone who wasn't expecting otherwise. Her long, thick hair hid her ears, and she had adapted to human culture more readily. She was more fluent in both Common and Chondathan, and she had inherited the stereotypically human traits of friendliness and drive. But Dominic's hair, though long, was usually tied back, so it accentuated his elven features rather than hide them. He was aloof, outwardly uninterested in most people he met, and, from his accent, noticeably unaccustomed to human tongues. Together, it was obvious what they were.

So, if her mother had bothered to put a bounty on them, and bounty hunters had gone around asking if anyone had seen a pair of half-elf siblings...

She tried not to think about it. She did her chores, telling herself he would be okay; he could have probably taken a bounty hunter if that was what held him up, and their mother didn't care about finding them anymore. If she cared she'd have found them by now. But the more she worked, the more her imagination tortured her. The oven in which she baked the crumblecakes became her mother's dungeons in her mind; shredded poultry became flesh ripped a living person; sliced tomatoes became blood and mashed peas became battered heads splitting open and worst of all, peeled potatoes in the pot became waterlogged bodies, bobbing slowly, drowned.

She'd made herself so anxious that she leaped halfway into fighting stance when the kitchen door opened behind her. Her hand closed over the nearest knife and her mouth prepared itself to sling a magically-laced insult before she could process that it was only Kaylessa. She dropped the knife and closed her mouth.

"You still ain't seen that brother of yours?" Kaylessa asked.

Didi shook her head.

Kaylessa sighed. "He ain't shown himself to me either, but I'd hoped he was around and just hiding. Now, listen, Didi. I don't like prying into you and your brother's personal business, but I'm gonna head down to the Sheriff's place and let him know to be keepin' an eye out for him. If you have any notion of why he might have wanted to run off... it could be helpful."

"He wanted to be a bounty hunter," Didi said, though she felt a little guilty for snitching. "He asked if I would come and I said no."

Kaylessa let out a breath. "I see. Well... I suppose that explains it." Her words had an odd weight to them, too final. Kaylessa had misunderstood.

"Not that he wanted to leave. He said we didn't have to leave. He said we'd come back in the morning. Maybe he just wanted to keep looking until he finds them but also, maybe... he might have gotten in trouble. That's why I want to go look for him."

Kaylessa put her hand to her mouth, thinking. "Didi, bounty hunting isn't something you can do in a night. I'm sure your brother knows that."

"He _doesn't_ know that!" Didi insisted. "That's what he wanted to do. Sneak out, find a criminal, and sneak back in. I _told_ him it was stupid but that's what he suggested."

"Didi... honestly, if you didn't want to leave and he did, that was just him trying to make a compromise, I reckon. Sounds like he figured you wouldn't be convinced, and up and left without you. You ain't checked your room for a note, have you?"

"He wouldn't do that!" Didi protested.

"Maybe not. But knowing what I know about young boys... they get to that age, sometimes, it's like they turn into different people altogether. They get that itch to go out and see new things, get away from their families. And they ain't that good with feelings, either. They don't always say goodbye."

"Dominic wouldn't leave me!" Didi snapped. "Do you want these vegetables cut or not, because I'm trying to finish this and it's taking me long enough already!"

Kaylessa looked around the kitchen from the boiling potatoes on the stove to the celery stalks on the counter, folded her arms across her chest, and sighed. "You've done enough. I appreciate you taking care of your responsibilities. Tell you what - you head on out down the trails and try to catch up with your brother, and I'll cover for you in here for tonight. But you come back before dark, understand? Don't wander off the path, and don't go causin' trouble!"

Didi did not have to be told twice. With all the terrors of her imagination at her feet, she bolted out the door without saying good-bye.

She heeded Kaylessa's warning to stick to the path, not out of obedience but out of lack of other leads. Occasionally she called out, "Dominic!" but even using magic to amplify her voice, no response ever came but the flight of startled birds.

She couldn't get far fast. The overnight rain had turned the path into a swamp. Several times her boots got stuck in the mud and she had to pry them out, and more than that she slipped and fell. By the time she'd been out for several hours, she no longer recognized her surroundings. Would Dominic have come this far? Had he gone the other way? Had he strayed in one of the endless possible directions from the path?

It had been raining all night; the road would have been slick for Dominic, too. And he hadn't been gone long before morning - she'd slept for only about four hours. If he'd been traveling along the path in this direction, she would have caught up to him by now, unless he'd continued wandering past daybreak. And why would he do that?

Even with this rationalization, she hesitated to turn back. What if he was just a _bit _further ahead, and she turned around just a bit too soon and lost all her progress? She didn't want to come this far again. But when she saw a carriage coming down the path towards her, she slowed. When it got close enough, she waved it down.

The driver seemed to wait for the last possible second to stop his horse. It finally came to a stop with a jolt and in a position that left her several paces behind the driver. She caught up to him with a burst of speed she probably couldn't have mustered if she thought she'd be walking back the way she came and peered up at him, angling her head to see into the covered coach.

"What do you want?" he asked, peering down at her with a scowl.

"Are you going to Red Larch?" Didi asked. "Please, can I ride with you?"

He looked her up and down. "You'd get my wares all muddy. No."

"I won't!" Didi promised. "I won't touch anything! And if I do on accident I'll pay you back for it! Please, my brother is missing and I have to get back and look for him and –"

"I said no!" the man said gruffly, taking out his whip to start his horse.

"I'll pay you!" Didi insisted. "I don't have any money on me right now but when we get to Red Larch I'll–"

"Do I look like a coach for hire? I said no!" He whipped his horse and the carriage took off.

She held back for a moment, angry tears building. She had tried to accept the fact that in this place, outside her mother's sphere of influence, people thought they could get away with disrespecting her. She couldn't bring her reputation with her when she left. She had to pass for an ordinary street urchin. But this was not something she could just let go.

As the carriage grew smaller, the magic in her fingers built. When there was enough, she whistled sharply. The magic flowed into her voice, magnifying the sound into something resembling the whistle of a furnace, and she flicked her hand at the carriage.

Smoke and flames encircled the wagon's cover. The driver screamed, the horse stopped, and Didi withdrew her spear from her belt as she charged. By the time he realized the fire wasn't hot and the wagon cover was completely intact, she was close enough to jab at him.

She missed. The man cursed, "You little–" and she jabbed again. He ducked back, retreating into the wagon, but that wouldn't help him. _Oh, I'll ruin your wares all right! _she thought as she jabbed through the wagon cover–

And missed again. She'd hit the wagon's wooden frame. As she jumped onto the side to yank her spear out, the man came at her from the side with a sword. He did not look as though he was at all familiar with _using _the weapons he sold, but a sword in an inexperienced person's hand is still dangerous to an experienced person trying to balance on the side of a wagon to dislodge a stuck spear. She leaped down just in time as the sword swung at her, and as she regained her balance he swung again. She jumped backwards, out of his range. Her spear was a lost cause at this point; she'd get it out when she'd incapacitated the guy. The stupid commoner swung a sword like he'd never had so much of a fist fight in his life; it would probably take only a few vicious words, along with a little dose of magic to knock him out.

"You talk tough, but –" Didi started, and reached for the magic to finish her sentence. The man pressed a foot down on the spear, loosening it. The magic trailed through Didi's veins, through her vocal cords. "Next time, think twice before you –"

_Thud! _The blunt end of her spear came down on her head. The magic she'd been gathering fizzled away. She fell to the ground. The spear fell beside her. The last thing she remembered was it hurting way more than it should have when her head hit the mud.

* * *

When she woke up to the sensation of falling rain, her first thought was that she was back in those months of running. Her head was muddled like it was in those first few days away from home, subsiding on as little sleep as they could manage, knowing their elven mother needed none. She had a split second of thinking that she should wake Dominic so they could get moving again, then a sadness and which was inexplicable for another half second before she remembered.

She sat up. Her head still ached terribly, and her vision took a few seconds too long to clear. It was dusk. She took her spear, which was laying beside her, and forced herself to stand.

Dominic might be back by now. He'd be worried. She had to get back to Red Larch soon, so he wouldn't get himself lost again, looking for her.

The walk was miserable. Every step she took sent another ray of pain through her head. She couldn't focus well enough to tune her head into the Weave and heal herself. She couldn't do anything but take one step at a time, using her spear as a cane so she wouldn't slip so easily on the mud.

She'd really messed up. What if the guy she'd attacked boarded at the Swinging Swords? It wouldn't even _have _to be the Swinging Swords. If he told a single soul in Red Larch that a half-elf hooligan had distracted him by making him think his wagon was on fire and then attacked him, it would not be long before the whole town heard about it. If she was lucky, Kaylessa would let her gather her things before kicking her and Dominic out. If she was unlucky, the town would form a mob, capture them, and ship them off to the dungeons. And as powerful as Dominic was, he could do nothing against a whole town. They hadn't managed to evade capture the first time, and Didi was in no condition to fight back now. They could all be lying in wait right now, ready to pounce when she set foot back in town, with Dominic as hostage.

But she had no choice but to go back. That's where Dominic would go.

If he could.

If he hadn't been stupid like her and picked a stupid fight and lost.

It was long past dark when the outline of Red Larch came into view. She could see in the dark, but the colors had faded with the sunset, everything becoming gray except the squares of yellow light from the windows in the Swinging Sword.

The town was still. No one came to arrest her. She quickened her pace as she approached the inn; maybe one those windows with the light on was their bedroom's, and Dominic would be up waiting for her. Maybe she could just sneak up and everything would be okay and she could forget this ever happened (after making Dominic promise he'd never sneak away like that again.)

She swung the door to the inn open, expecting to find the night shift clerk fighting off drowsiness at the front desk. Instead, she found Kaylessa at one of the sitting tables, one hand holding a cup of tea and the other hand on her temple.

Kaylessa stood up. "Didi! What in the –"

"I'm sorry!" Didi interrupted. "I know you're going to be mad, but I got into a fight, and if you're going to fire me and kick me out I understand but I –"

Didi fell silent as Kaylessa's arms wrapped around her so tight she couldn't move her arms. At first she was confused and tried to step backwards. But Kaylessa pulled her in closer, so tight Didi didn't have to support her own weight anymore, and Didi stopped struggling.

"Goodness gracious, child. First that brother of yours disappears on me, then you don't come back 'til gods know what hour it is, now –"

"Is Dominic back?" Didi interrupted.

Kaylessa's silence was her answer.

Tears spilled from Didi's eyes. What could she do? She had to go look for him along the other path, of course, but how could she? She couldn't move, she couldn't try, and now that she was restrained, unable to force her blood to flow by stubbornly putting one foot in front of the other, she was lightheaded. She thought she might faint –

Instead, she vomited on Kaylessa's sleeve.

Kaylessa gasped, shifted Didi to lean further out over, muttered a bunch of half-sentences that Didi barely heard: "Oh my–what in the–!? Are you okay? Oh, goodness gracious – and I just rinsed the mop out – oh, all right now. Let's get you to bed."

**Question-of-the-chapter: How old do you think Didi is? And Dominic?**


	3. The bowman, Part I

A day passed. She spent it sleeping – she was capable of little else. And she hated herself for it. She had to find Dominic. She had to heal, so she could fight. Every time she'd woken up that day, she'd recited the Elvish couplet she'd learned to heal herself. Each time, she felt the pressure in her head grow a little lighter. And each time she'd tried to get out of bed, a searing pain shot up her, straight towards her head, the second she took a step. So she'd had to lay back down, and use more of her magic, but even the effort of reaching into the rhythm of the simple poem and drawing the magic from it proved overwhelmingly exhausting, and sent her back to sleep.

There had been a small meal and cup of water waiting for her each time she woke up. And at one point–a point past sunset, though she had no idea how far past sunset–she awoke to see Kaylessa sitting at a stool by her side. Whatever she'd been doing before she started to stir, Didi didn't know, but by the time she'd opened her eyes Kaylessa's eyes were on her.

"Where's Dominic?" Didi managed to say with a rusted voice.

"Oh, child," was all Kaylessa said.

Didi tried, again, to scramble up out of bed, but this time a stern look from Kaylessa stopped her before the pain in her head could. "Not so fast, now. You still need your rest."

"But Dominic–"

"Dominic is nearly a grown man, and I let the sheriff know he's missin', so any adventurers that pass through here are gonna have their eye out for him. He's gonna be fine. You need your rest."

"But he's in trouble!" Didi managed to finish her sentence, her voice cracking into a whisper. Kaylessa handed her a cup of water, which she downed in a gulp.

Kaylessa took away Didi's empty cup and leaned back in her seat, looking at the ceiling. "Look, child... I know you love that brother of yours, and I know he loves you, but he's a teenage boy, after all. Teenage boys – and some teenage girls, too, for that matter – well, they tend to reach a point where they think their family is holding them back, and they get the wanderlust and head off on their own. I know your brother always had that look in his eyes, like he was dreamin' about being somewhere else. You seem happy enough here, but I always figured he would get restless and head off on his own someday. And if he was wanting to go off and be bounty hunters – I think he might've made up his mind on that long before he asked you. Here; have some more water."

"He wouldn't leave me!" Didi insisted, tears spilling. "He'd never do that!"

"Well, I'm hoping he'll realize how much he misses you and comes back on his own. But these years are his time to figure out who he is."

Didi fell silent. She could not explain to Kaylessa, but she _knew _Dominic wouldn't ever run away without her. In all those years daydreaming about leaving their mother's home, the idea of leaving a sibling behind had never been part of the picture.

It had become a necessity. Drayden, the next oldest after Didi, couldn't be trusted. He hadn't wanted to leave. The younger kids had been scattered all over the house, there had been no time to gather everyone together. She remembered Dominic shaking her awake in the cool night air, saying "Come on, we have to go now!" And her following, too tired to ask questions.

The rest of the memories were fuzzy. They'd traveled half by foot, half by teleport. Dominic had not ever cast a teleport spell before. Each time they'd landed with headaches and partial amnesia; only clinging to the vague notion that they had to get away from their mother.

The memories had slowly come back while they rested. Didi had woken up on the ground in tears, suddenly remembering who she was and what she'd done - run away, left the kids behind. She'd shaken Dominic awake to ask him why. He'd stared blankly her before seeming to suddenly remember everything himself.

"There was a ritual. She made me to do it. It was... really painful. Cursed water... thought it would kill me. I was scared."

But it hadn't killed him. And it was over now. So why run after the fact?

"You were supposed to do it, too."

"What about the kids?" Didi asked, her voice like a plea.

"Still kids. She won't make them do it... not yet."

"They'll grow up fast," Didi had whispered. Drayden had been nine.

"We'll go back for them when we're stronger," Dominic had promised.

That must have been why he wanted to leave, Didi thought. Scraping out a living chasing down petty criminals didn't sound like the most efficient way of attaining the level of magical prowess that would be necessary to fend off their mother and her followers while stealing away the rest of their siblings. But maybe Dominic thought it would be more productive than spending their time mucking stables and changing sheets.

But he still wouldn't have left without her. She was sure of that.

Kaylessa made Didi drink some chicken broth, which she did silently. She was not used to the kindness. She wanted to question it, and she knew she should thank her, but she didn't know to express something like that, and she was too worried about Dominic to dwell on it, so she said nothing until Kaylessa left with the empty dishes, urging her to go back to sleep and assuring her that she wouldn't be expected to work the next day.

* * *

She'd thought she was well enough to force herself up, but there must have been some relaxation herbs in the broth, since she slept through the night again. What woke her was a sound outside her window. This time she was well enough to get to her feet and look outside; someone had been in the small back garden where they grew the vegetables and apples, and was running away. She was initially more confused than suspicious, and then she figured he'd probably gone back there to steal the apples like she and Dominic had, a few months ago. But that didn't explain the noise at her window.

Losing sight of the man, she opened the window for a better view and peered down.

Lodged in the wooden wall just below was an arrow. Attached to the arrow was a piece of parchment.

She opened it.

**HALF ELF GIRL**  
**WE HAVE YOU'RE BROTHER. BRING 100 SLIVER IF YOU WANT TO SEE HIM TO THE BIG ROCK BYE THE SEMETTARY**  
**COME ALLONE AND TELL NOONE**  
**OR ELS**

Under "or els" was a crude drawing of a pointy-eared, ponytailed head with X's where the eyes should be and a dripping knife underneath.

Strangely enough, this filled Didi with optimism rather than fear. It confirmed that Dominic was in danger, but she'd known that in her heart anyway and now she had an idea of where to look for him.

She had a faint idea of where the cemetery was. She and Dominic had passed it before they arrived in Red Larch. The money, on the other hand...

It was pointless to retrieve her satchel from the desk where Kaylessa had left it after helping her change into her night clothes, but she did so anyway, as though the few coppers she had left after purchasing the novel from Gaelker could have miraculously turned to gold. Even if this had been a folk tale, in which kindhearted fairies blessed mortals who had earned good fortune, Didi surely wouldn't have qualified for such a boon. She had nothing.

It wasn't like she intended to leave these scoundrels alive after rescuing Dominic. But she had no idea who her opponents were, nor their numbers. She could tell from their spelling that their intelligence was lacking... but that didn't necessarily translate into competence in battle. She didn't intend to come back empty-handed, but she wouldn't risk showing up that way, either.

She'd have to steal it.

A sickening feeling came over her. Her eyes fell on the nightstand, where Kaylessa had left a cup of water and a heel of buttered bread. Now that her head was clear, she was hit by the weight of the kindness Kaylessa had shown her. She hadn't scolded her for getting in a fight, or vomiting all over her. She'd guided her up the stairs, helped her change into her nightgown and took her soiled clothing away to be washed, eased her into bed, and pulled the blankets up around her shoulders, like Didi had once done for her littlest siblings. She'd been providing Didi with food, and not asking her to work for it.

She hadn't been acting much like a cruel mistress forcing her to live a life of servitude very much, lately.

Which made Didi feel not-so-justified about the time she'd snuck up behind Kaylessa when she went to deposit the day's earnings into the safe, and memorized the combination.

But she couldn't take chances with Dominic. He was priority. She'd have to steal. Or, borrow. If everything went well, it would just be borrowing.

It was late morning. This time of day, Kaylessa would likely be making sure the newly-vacated rooms were tidy, and that the rooms had, in fact, been vacated. She peeked back and forth down the hall, saw the coast was clear, and sprinted down stairs towards the safe room, grabbed the cash, stuffed it down her shirt, and sprinted outside.

Her head still hurt a bit each time her feet made contact with the ground. She thought about healing herself again, but magic could only do so much for head injuries, and she wanted to save her magic for combat. If Dominic was hurt, she'd need all the magic she could get.


	4. The bowman, Part II

Author's note: Here's another chapter! Thanks to everyone who's reading! Especially thanks to Daxxers for reviewing. :D

So, something I totally meant to mention in previous chapters but I forgot: each of the chapter titles is a quote from a particular poet. The first person to identify that poet, wins a prize (either an in-depth review on one of your stories, a cameo, or just a shout-out.) If you Google it, it doesn't count. (I know I have no way to enforce that, but cheating is lame so don't do it.)

...There's a fight scene in this chapter. I have no idea how to write fight scenes. I don't pay attention to them when I read. Any advice is appreciated.

She didn't take the direct path to the cemetery. Instead she stayed in the midst of trees as much as possible, though she occasionally cast her eyes upwards to make sure no one was hiding in them waiting for her. When she found a decent sized cluster of trees she did a rough inventory. She had a small handful of gold, a decent amount of silver, and a lot of copper. She stashed some of it, mostly the more valuable pieces, in a squirrel hole in the tree, removed one of her socks, and put the bulkiest amount of money inside.

The cemetery wasn't far. She spotted it first, then a big jagged rock that protruded from the dirt. Sure enough, a campfire had been set. Two scruffy looking men, a small carriage, a lethargic-looking horse, a sleeping bear chained to a tree, and one captive half-elf. Dominic.

Fury built up inside her. As far as she could tell he was unharmed. He looked alert, eyeing the cut of meat roasting on the fire hungrily; there were no visible cuts or bruises on him, But how _dare _they kidnap him? How dare they scare her so badly? How dare they let him  
go hungry?

They would _pay._

They had picked an open area. No chance for a sneak attack but that was fine. She wanted them to _know _who was killing them and why. She grabbed her trusty spear in one hand, her sock full of money in the other, and stepped out into the clearing.

It took them a pathetically long time to notice her. Dominic was the first one to do so - he caught her eye, then maintained eye contact while shaking his head. Didi paused. Why would he gesture at her to leave – was there a trap somewhere? She pointed from one direction to another, casting Dominic questioning glances each time. Each time he shook his head, but each time she tried to advance he shook his head faster.

"Hey! Who are you!?" shouted one of the bandits, grabbing a knife from the ground. He'd noticed Dominic's head shaking.

She jangled the coins in the sock like he was a house pet she was trying to lure back with food. "I'm here for my brother!"

"Ha! So you are the little sister! And you actually brought the money! How sweet!"

"Some of it!" she called out at him. "You can have this bit when my brother's untied. Then, I'll tell you where I stashed the rest, and by the time you find it we'll be safe at home!" She might as well keep the lie up until they unbound Dominic.

To her confusion, both men started laughing. There was something more than crude in it, something... It reminded her of home somehow, but it wasn't like her mother... No, these men reminded her of her father.

Her father, who she barely knew. Her father, who her mother used like a bull for breeding. Her father, who had been chosen for that purpose for his strength, and brutality.

Both men rushed at her and she sprinted forward, her spear held straight out to deflect their weapons. She rushed through the center of them, causing them both to stumble a bit. They hadn't expected her to go past them, but her first aim was to free Dominic. She ripped the gag from his mouth first, then went behind him to get at his tied wrists.

"Get out of here!" Dominic said, as she sawed at the ropes–an awkward matter, with her spear. The bandits had already doubled back; she wouldn't have much time.

"Are you hurt?" she asked.

"I'm fine! Get out!"

She continued to saw, though the bandits were mere feet away. "Move your wrists apart more!"

He did, and she slashed away the last few tethers of the rope. Dominic sprang up just in time to get between the bandits and her, causing each man to divert their path, going around him separate ways to get to her. Dominic chased the one on her right. Her spear was enough to hold the other one at bay. Her eyes fell on Dominic–he was holding his own, but the bandit had a weapon, and Dominic's strongest spells needed a focus–his staff.

Where would they have kept it? The staff was only a piece of wood; it had no value to anyone but Dominic. But if she was lucky, these crooks wouldn't know that. Otherwise, the most likely place for it was the fire pit. But if they did think it was valuable–

There it was, in the carriage! She recognized the handle sticking out from between a pair of worn linen sacks. But the brief slip in attention cost her–her opponent's spear came at her face; she jumped backwards, inches from where it landed, only to find herself in range of the other man's sword. It slammed against her ribs, but didn't penetrate her armor. As the swordsman tried to swing it back up, the spear came towards her neck.

"Who taught you to aim, a plumber?" Didi asked, dodging. "I could fight better with a toilet plunger than you with that spear!" She infused the insult with magic, and the man flinched from the headache. Didi sprinted towards the carriage -

And stopped short as the chained-up bear, having awoken from the commotion, lunged towards her. Its chains stopped it from reaching her by inches. Didi ran around the carriage, approaching from the side away from the bear and the tree it was tied to. She climbed up the side, swiped the staff -

_Braaar! _The bear roared as it sprang up on its feet and pounced on the carriage, which snapped in two under the weight. Didi jumped backwards, dropping the staff, which rolled underneath.

"Hey! That bitch broke our carriage!" one of the men shouted. Dominic and his opponent had become distracted by the noise and were staring at the wreckage.

"Why would you chain up a bear next to your carriage? Moron!" shouted Didi, another magically-infused insult. Though, this one didn't affect the guy badly enough to distract him, and he kept charging at her. She drew her spear and ran at him, aiming for his eye. Just as she was near enough to reach him, he jumped sideways, out of her reach–and straight into the reach of the angered bear.

Its massive paw knocked the man off his feet. The man screamed. The bear roared and fell upon the prone man savagely. Whether it was attacking out of rage or hunger, Didi could not tell. But it didn't exactly refuse to swallow the mouthfuls of shredded flesh it tore off

The other man, to his credit, was brave enough to try to save his friend. He let out a loud battle cry and swung at the bear, who let go of its prey long enough to dodge the sword. The mauled man crawled on his hands the length of two paces, and collapsed. The still-standing bandit dropped his sword and ran to his friend, dragging him by the shoulders outside of the bear's reach, and shouted, without looking at Dominic or Didi, "We surrender! We surrender! Our life is in your hands! And he needs healing, now!"

Dominic picked up the standing man's sword and hit him in the neck with it. He collapsed on his dying friend and bled out.

"...So," said Didi. "Your staff is under the carriage."

Dominic looked at the carriage, and then at the bear, which was within mauling distance of the carriage.

"...I mean, it probably wouldn't be too hard to find a new staff," said Didi.

"No!" said Dominic, as though startled. "No, besides, they have a lot of money in that carriage. Here, gimme your spear–I'll take care of the bear."

Didi looked at her spear, and his outstretched hand, and then away, guiltily.

"What?" asked Dominic.

"...That bear has only helped us."

"...Uh. I don't think it ate that guy out of the goodness of its heart."

"I know, but... it must've been so scared! It's not its fault that those people captured it."

Dominic looked at his feet, too. "I've heard bear meat tastes pretty good."

"Eww! That would be like... second-hand canninalism!"

A pause. Dominic sighed. "You really don't wanna hurt that bear?"

"It wouldn't be fair. It's not its fault."

And besides, she already felt a tiny bit guilty about Dominic killing the bandit after he surrendered. Even though that had always been the plan. Even though they deserved it.

She didn't want to kill anything else right now.

"Look," she said. "I have an idea. If it doesn't work, I'll kill the bear myself. But that's gonna be the last resort."

The bear, which after having been roused, was lunging towards the two dead bandits, trying to break free of its restrains. Didi reached for the Weave, catching a few tendrils of magic in the wind. She found the notes of the wind, rustling the branches in a tree in the opposite direction of the carriage, and changed it into the buzzing of bees. From that sound, she focused her imagination and built the illusion of a beehive in the tree, dripping with honey.

The bear's ear twitched. It turned around and trotted towards the tree, stood upright, and pawed at the branches. The "hive" was just out of reach.

"Go, loot the carriage!" said Didi. "I don't know how long I can fool it. But don't worry, if it goes towards you, I'll handle it."

Dominic seemed less than pleased with that idea, but he ran towards the carriage anyway. He fumbled underneath, came out with the staff, then climbed into it from the top.

The bear growled at the hive in frustration.

"Hurry!" Didi said.

"I'm almost done!" A second later, he emerged from the top of the carriage, holding a velvet pouch which he used to carry his magical components. He whispered something and threw some sand onto the ground by the bear. The bear immediately lay down and fell asleep.

"Oh! Good idea!" said Didi. She lowered her spear and went over to the carriage.

"Be careful. I dunno how long that'll last," said Dominic. He ducked back into the carriage and re-emerged with a sack of coin, which he handed to her. Then he ducked back down and retrieved some things to carry for himself.

Didi took the bandit's sword and cut the sleeping bear's tether, and they went back the way they came, arms full of all the sacks they could carry.

"Are you okay?" Didi asked.

"Huh? I'm okay. ...Are you?"

"Of course I am! I'm not the one who got kidnapped."

A long pause. "I'm okay. I'm just hungry."

"I'll sneak you some extra food from the kitchen tonight!"

"No, we have money now! We can eat anything in Red Larch! I want to eat a whole chicken, and, like... five of those nut pies with cinnamon that that one lady sells."

"Okay. I'll get it for you," Didi said. She was tearing up, for some reason. "...Speaking of money, I have to go get the other half of the ransom I stashed in a tree."

He went with her as she went of the trail. "You actually brought money? Where'd you get it?"

"I stole it from Kaylessa's safe," she said, as she spotted the tree where it had been stashed.

"Oh." A long pause as she fished the bag from the tree hole. "It was nice knowing you."

"I'm going to give it back to her! I only took it in case we turned out to be way outnumbered."

Dominic said nothing. He was staring with a dead-eyed stare at a random tree stump.

"What?"

He looked at her again as if he'd forgotten she was there. "Look. Didi. You shouldn't put yourself in danger for me."

She rolled her eyes as they started back towards the trail. "So I should just let you get kidnapped?"

"Yes. I can take care of myself. If you hadn't come, I would've figured something out."

"Well, you're welcome," Didi said with a scoff.

"I'm serious!" said Dominic. "Those guys didn't want a ransom. They wanted _you_. I'm sorry – I didn't mean to let them know about you – they had me tied up, and they asked if I had any family, and I thought they'd kill me if I said no, so I mentioned you. And then they started talking about a ransom note, and I thought that was actually what they wanted so I told them where to find you–and then, by the time they started talking about the price of half-elf girls in the slave market it was too late."

"Is that why you kept telling me to get out?" She tilted her head at him. "Geez. I thought you meant I was about to step into a trap, or something. No need to freak out like that about ordinary creeps."

"You didn't hear the things they said!" Dominic said. "Those guys were really bad news. I just... couldn't stand it if anything happened to you." His fist curled tightly around his staff.

"...Yeah, well. Same to you. So if you don't want me to rescue you, don't get kidnapped."

Dominic said nothing.

"Hey," Didi said with a smirk, "how did you even get caught by those lowlifes in the first place? They weren't exactly skilled warriors."

As Didi had hoped, her teasing seemed to snap him out of it, and his blank expression turned to one of protest as he followed her back towards the town. "It wasn't my fault! They got me while I was asleep!"

"Why were you asleep?"

"Because I didn't want to go home and have to do chores after spending the whole night bounty hunting! So I just slept in a tree." His sentence had started out defensive, then faded into a regretful tone; Dominic seemed to realize as he spoke that this explanation just made him feel more foolish.

"What a foolish mistake! How shameful! And why were you sleeping? Learn to meditate! You are half an elf; act like it!" Didi said, in an exaggerated imitation of their mother's voice. Dominic tried to swat at her with his staff, but she easily dodged it and, grinning. She could tease Dominic about this for a long time.

Didi knew that she had, only a day ago, lost a fight with a similarly unskilled foe. Dominic didn't need to know that.

* * *

On the short walk back to town, they came up with a plan. They would stash the sacks of valuable items from the bandits in another hollow tree just outside town, to sneak out and retrieve at night. Then, Didi would casually walk through town, climb the apple tree and sneak into her bedroom through the window, and from there, sneak Kaylessa's stolen money back into the safe. In the meantime, Dominic would come limping dramatically into the lobby, causing a distraction. When Kaylessa called for Didi, she'd come running and pretend to be totally shocked.

All went according to plan. She snuck back in with only one person, the chef, spotting her through the window as she climbed the apple tree, and he just looked annoyed, not suspicious. She got the money back into the safe. She even added an extra gold piece. Interest. It was only fair.

And when Kaylessa hollered for her, she came running into the lobby, threw herself into Dominic's arms, and cried like a baby.

"Nice acting," he whispered to her in Elvish as he hugged her awkwardly.

Didi wasn't acting at all. But Dominic didn't need to know that, either.

Question-of-the-chapter: Do you prefer to express your emotions, or hide them? Do you mask your more vulnerable emotions with humor, stoicism, or some other method?


	5. children earnest at their play, Part I

It was a new day, a new mission. Didi was in search of food for Dominic, and books for herself. Though Dominic claimed he was fine and more hungry than traumatized, Kaylessa insisted on subjecting him to the same kindness Didi had been subjected to after her head injury. He was forbidden to get out of bed or eat anything but bread and soup. Didi had been deemed "back to normal," which meant she'd had to wake up early in the morning to help serve breakfast and wash the clean the vacant rooms, but she was free to spend the afternoon roaming the town.

It was a new experience to have coins in her pocket that she could spend on anything she wanted. As a child, she'd never gone without anything she needed, but she'd never been permitted anything her mother would have found frivolous. She'd had access to some toys, bought for the children of their mother's followers (who were actually permitted to be children even though many of them were nearly double Didi's chronological age) but never had the chance to select one for herself. And books? There had been a library in her home, but it had been curated by her mother. Didi used to have, hidden under her bed, an entire wagonload "popular literature" – romances, children's fiction, modern tales of adventurers – but she'd only been able to obtain them because she snuck into the dungeons when they were occupied by an unfortunate wandering chapbook merchant (who had seen too much, and was soon after ritualistically killed) and pilfered his stock. When her mother found out about the books a year later, they, too, were sacrificed to the sea.

If only Red Larch had a real bookstore. She'd never been inside one before; she'd only looked through a window once, in another town they'd come through when they were still on the road. The bookseller had seen the longing on her dirty face and chased her away. Didi imagined it would be the pinnacle of freedom to be able to walk into a bookstore with money and select one of her own accord.

They'd made the decision about what to do with their loot the night before, after Didi had snuck out to retrieve it from where it had been stowed. They would save most of it, in case they needed it later. Maybe someday they'd be able to afford a weapon that could help them rescue their siblings back home, or hire a mage powerful enough to kill their mother. That would be way down the line, of course - but was why it was so important to start saving now.

The other decision was that the money, and all evidence of their exploits, would be concealed from Kaylessa. Their cover story was that Dominic had gone out at night searching for the wanted criminals, got lost, and wasn't able to find his way back until he was able to ride partway with a party heading to Waterdeep. If Kaylessa knew they'd looted money from bandits she would want them to do the "honest thing" and turn it in to the constable. That wasn't going to happen. It wasn't like money could be identified as belonging to any particular person - it was finders-keepers, as far as Didi was concerned.

However, they did agree to turn in the other valuable objects they'd found - jewelry, armor, and even some magical things. These objects could be identified by their owners, and they might have sentimental value. She imagined that, for example, one of the stolen rings might have been the engagement ring of a woman whose fiancé died the day before they were supposed to be married, or that the metal helmet might have belonged to a knight and then passed on to his squire who was secretly in love with him but never told and then the knight married a princess and left the squire behind to travel alone. It wouldn't be right to keep something like that. On top of that, the items would serve as proof that they had killed the bandits, enabling them to collect the bounty.

Once they had the stolen money and bounty, they would allow themselves to spend a little bit on useful or pleasurable things.

Her first stop had been the town market, but there had only been one merchant there, Grond the half-orc pickle salesman. Apparently, the market was designated open three times a tenday, but Grond was so passionate about pickles he kept his booth open even when no one other merchants were around, but he preferred it when other merchants were around, because a blanket salesman always set up shop across from Grond and Grond liked looking at blankets. At least, that was Didi thought he was saying, but he had a very strong Red Larch accent, which would have been difficult to understand even his words had made sense. Grond did mention that the best place to buy fried chicken was Mandhyver's Poultry, which Didi decided to visit on her way back.

The only other place she knew that carried books was Gaelker's store, which, if given the choice, she preferred not to patronize for obvious reasons. None the less, if it was her only option, she would bravely face the villainous cretin to obtain the treasure.

Gaelker was watching her, arms crossed, even before she walked in the door. "What do you want?" he asked, with a sneer so exaggerated it slurred his words.

"Do you have any more books?" Didi said politely. This made him sneer even more, as he gestured towards the shelf in the corner where the same spell book and blank journal lay, untouched since her prior visit.

"Oh. Do you think you'll get more books soon? Do people trade them in very often? Do you ever stock boy-boy romance?"

His frown twisted more and more with each question, until it snapped and he bellowed, "Do I look like a damned librarian? Get out!"

"No, you look like an old, hairy troll!" Didi retorted before compliantly scrambling away.

Her third stop was the constable's office, which was also the butcher shop. It had been quite alarming to Didi, back in those first few days in Red Larch, when they'd gotten caught stealing and were tied up and prodded to the butcher shop, into an empty meat locker._ Sure_, the constable had told her they were only being kept there until they could be shipped off to Waterdeep and put away in an actual dungeon, but the whole situation just gave off the vibe of a "small, charming town full of cannibals" genre of horror stories.

But, after having worked in the Swinging Swords' kitchens for such a long time she was fairly sure that the meat was not human or humanoid. And she'd come to like the constable. Any time a drunkard at the Swinging Sword had tried to get crude or handsy with her, Kaylessa would drag them to the butcher shop and the constable would hang them by the belt loop on the meat hooks until they sobered up.

"What can I do for yeh?" the constable asked automatically, before seeming to recognize her. He raised his eyebrows. "Miss... Didi," he added.

Didi pulled the satchel full of jewelry and weapons from her belt. "So, my brother got kidnapped by some bandits–"

"So I heard–"

"–And he killed them all and found a bunch of stuff they probably stole. Can we have the bounty?" She dropped the sack on the cutting counter.

The constable brushed his meat-soiled hands on his apron and inspected the items. "I – err – well, I'll be. This does look like that ring that noblewoman got robbed of a while back. Oh, and there's that halfling's missing harmonica – hmm, I don't recall anyone reporting a missing wand, but we can hold this here and see if anyone claims it." He put the things away and looked up at her with raised brows. "You say your brother was the one who found this stuff? Where's he?"

"We fought the bandits together, but Dominic's sick!" Didi said. "He sent me to claim the bounty so I could buy him some fried chicken!" A pause. "Don't tell Kaylessa. About the bandits. Or the fried chicken. She says he's only allowed to eat bread and butter with vegetable broth for a few days."

The butcher seemed to take a second to process her words, leaned back and laughed. "Well, if Ms. Kaylessa Irkell asks me a question, I ain't brave enough to try to lie to her! But I'll keep it between us other than that, if you insist." His laughter faded into chuckles. "Ha. So you're still stayin' in that inn, are yeh? I always thought Ms. Irkell was done with kids."

Didi wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but before she could, he'd gone for the bounty money in his safe. She left with another satchel of coins, and the possibility of more on the way, when the property was returned.

The last stop was Mandhyver's Poultry. She'd been there before; Kaylessa had sent her there to wholesale purchase some of the headless rooster carcasses that they kept dangling from a line in the shopfront patio, but the place also functioned as a restaurant that served pre-cooked chicken, usually to travelers passing through. Didi had not tried it, though it did always smell delicious. Mrs. Mandhyver, a stout and kindly woman, saw her approaching through the window and opened the door before she could knock.

"Good morning, Miss... uh... Didi, was it?" She had a look on her face as though she was trying out the name.

"Yep," said Didi. Mrs. Mandhyver was the second person today to hesitate before using her name. She supposed, in a town where people were so predisposed to social propriety, people would find it odd to use such a diminutive nickname on a non-relative, an outsider. Didi insisted on it anyway. Though Dominic had, in a moment of panic, given his real name when they were apprehended, Didi wanted to avoid being known by hers. Kaylessa had overheard Dominic calling her by her real name, Diana, several times – it had been difficult for him to get used to calling her something else – but she had never asked about it, or called her anything but the name she introduced herself by. So she supposed that was okay. But she didn't want anyone else to know.

Mrs. Mandhyver smiled, looking relieved, as if she'd been afraid she'd somehow mispronounced it. "We don't have chickens for buyin' whole yet today, but you're ready to head out back an' have a look. I c'n help you out with it in a bit." She held up her hands, shiny with grease, to explain why she couldn't slaughter any chicken quite right now.

"Actually, I came here because Grond at the farmer's market said you have the best fried chicken?" Didi said, with a smile. "My brother is stuck in bed and he sent me out for fried food."

"Oh!" said Mrs. Mandhyver, looking from side to side a bit awkwardly. "Well, you're a bit early for that. We don't usually have any meals ready 'til 'bout noon –" She glanced towards the door to her backyard. "You're welcome to come back in a bit, or –" She paused, as if something suddenly occurred to her. "Wait a minute, your brother, that's the boy who went missing a few days back, right?" When Didi nodded, she clasped her greasy hands together and continued, "Oh, I'm so glad to hear he's back! Is he all right – I was worried, there's some strange goings-on around here lately!" She started walking back to the kitchen after that, as though she hadn't thought about it but just expected Didi to follow, so she did. "There've been strange folk hanging around the graveyard, of all places, and even my granddaughter Pell –" She looked about, as if to make sure the child was out of earshot, and continued in a lower voice, "Well, usually I let her go out 'n play on her own – y'know, with all the adults in the family working all the time it's good for her to get out and play with other children – but no more. She's been having nightmares; says she saw a ghost down by Lance Rock."

Mrs. Mandhyver turned away from her to retrieve something from her cupboard. Didi raised her eyebrows. The strange people in the graveyard could have just been the bandits, but Lance Rock was somewhere else. "Do you believe her?" asked Didi. "Sometimes kids just scare themselves." Her little siblings had all scared each other with ghost stories, she remembered a little wistfully. One day all the little ones went together down to the dungeon under the library, trying to scare each other with stories, only to all get spooked by some apparition that had been probably just a rat. They'd come running at her at once screaming hysterically.

"Well, I don't know if it was a ghost, but I do think she saw something. She was serious about it, n' she even described the thing clearly. For all we know, there's things worse than ghosts down there." Mrs. Mandhyver sprinkled some spices on the raw strips on the counter in front of her. "I'll try to have this ready for your brother soon as I can. You can stay and wait, or go – but I might be able to work a bit faster if you go out and entertain Pell for a bit. She's a bit stir-crazy, not being allowed to leave the yard – she'll come in here 'n start pestering me any minute now, and that'll slow me down."

"Sure, I'll play with Pell! Thanks!" Didi said.

The curly-haired girl was in the backyard, playing with the chicks. Didi had seen her before. Like Mrs. Mandhyver had said, she used to roam the town, doing whatever entertained her. She was younger than most of the children who were allowed to wander the town freely, and often tagged along with a group of older boys who seemed to alternate between indulging her and trying to ditch her. The last time Didi had seen her, all the Red Larch kids had been in one big group. One of them had shot an arrow into the Swinging Sword's Inn's wooden outer walls, and Kaylessa had gone out to yell at them. They'd denied being involved even as they stood around looking guilty, until finally one kid blamed someone else and another kid objected, and Pell stood behind another boy, entirely ignored.

Pell was about the same age as Dahna, or maybe Dilly. And suddenly Didi could not help but think about other times archery practice had gone wrong, arrows lost, things broken; and there were times her siblings had all blamed each other and she could always tell the who the real culprit was and she was more bothered by the fact that the kids wouldn't stand up for each other. She remembered sitting them all down, Dahna on her knee too little to understand, and lecturing them: _"We are all allies! You are each other's _only_ allies! If you've really done something so terrible that you couldn't suffer the consequences, blame me for it. You can do that, because I made a promise to protect you.__ But I want you to protect each other."_

"Who are you?" Pell asked in the real world, looking Didi up and down.

_Don't think about them, _Didi told herself, _Pell is nothing like them, anyway, besides being young and brown-eyed_. _Don't think about the kids; you have no reason to. _

**"**Why are you crying?" Pell looked uncomfortable.

Didi blinked the tears away. She'd gotten good at dismissing her tears and her memories; it was a necessary skill. During her initial days on the run, she'd suddenly be hit by a memory and end up drowning in it, utterly helpless, as though she were laying on the ocean floor and the guilt and anxiety and despondency were washing over her like waves. She couldn't function when that happened, couldn't hunt or use her magic; she could only amble mindlessly behind Dominic like golem following its master. That wasn't a safe state to be in while trying to evade someone as cunning as their mother; she'd had to learn to force herself out of it. For Dominic's sake, she told herself, to rebuff the part of her that thought she didn't deserve to feel anything but misery.

"It's just the spices your grandma is cooking with, getting in my eyes. My name is Didi. Will you be my friend?"

Pell accepted the offer without further question, tugging at Didi's hand and leading her to the coop to introduce her to each bird by name. She'd been making dandelion-chain crowns for the tamer of them, though the birds did not seem particularly inclined to keep the things on, and they loosened and fell apart as the birds pecked at the ground. Didi followed the child's lead, letting Pell teach her how to braid the grass and handle new hatchlings. She didn't let herself think about her siblings. She didn't let herself wonder about the consequences of brushing away those tears, that with the tears went the memories and the guilt; she didn't acknowledge her sinking worry that dismissing those feelings required her to blink away the promises she'd made, too.


	6. children earnest at their play, Part II

One hour and one game of hide-and-seek later, Didi was back home, feeling a little bit better. She and Dominic had blissfully eaten the chicken down to the bone, the most indulgent meal they'd had in... well, probably ever. Dominic was now napping soundly. Finally at liberty to read, Didi brought her book downstairs, to the lobby, so she could close the blinds in her and Dominic's room. The presence of others in the lobby didn't bother her. So long as her head was clear, it was easy to tune out external stimuli while reading.

So much so, that she didn't notice Kaylessa was speaking to her until she'd repeated herself. "I _said, _what's that you got there?"

Didi put her book down and lifted her head. "Hmm?"

Kaylessa looked at her expectantly.

"This?" Didi held the book up. "It's a book. An adventure story. There's this human boy, and he left his village because it was attacked by orcs, and– "

"And where did you get it?" Kaylessa interrupted.

"Huh? Oh, from Gaelker."

Kaylessa's eyes narrowed. "With what money?"

"From wages! I didn't steal it!" Didi defended.

"You better not have!" Kaylessa sighed, shaking her head. "That money is for you to save and use when you need it – if you need to buy yourself a new pair of boots, or if y'all ever decide to leave this place and make a start somewhere else. Maybe an occasional small treat, on special occasions. You shouldn't be spending it all on things like books."

Didi felt her ears drooping. "I only bought this one. I like books."

"Ain't your head in the clouds enough already?" Kaylessa asked. Didi almost argued back, but she noticed Kaylessa didn't really seem angry – she was smiling. Teasing her, not lecturing her.

Didi perked back up again. "Don't worry, I'll save most of my wages. I just _really_ wanted to read this _one _book."

"Okay, now. If you say so." Kaylessa approached her, casting her eyes about the room to scan for others before she spoke again in a lowered voice. "Truth be told, I'm more worried about you spending your time browsing around in that Gaelker's shop –"

"I didn't steal from him! He's lying! He just doesn't like me because –"

Kaylessa held a hand up. "Stop. That ain't what I meant. Look, just... between you and me, I don't want you to go around Gaelker's shop unless you have to. His is the only place in town that has some things, but there's some shady things about that place."

Didi's ears turned towards Kaylessa. "Ooh? Like what?"

"Well, I shouldn't be spreading rumors, and it ain't anything I know for sure about, but people say and I suspect..." She stopped, eyes narrowing when she saw the eagerness in Didi's eyes. "This ain't no gossip for you to be spreading around, Didi. I'm only telling you so you stay away from it."

"I won't tell!" Didi said. "...I'll only tell Dominic, but Dominic won't tell anyone else."

Kaylessa seemed to accept that, and said, "Well then, just between the three of us, there's rumors – the credible sort, not the gossipy sort – that when you pay Gaelker in copper coins, he flattens 'em out and breaks 'em and paints 'em to look like gold coins. That's why I always send you with exact change when I send you over there."

A pause. "That's all?" Didi asked.

Kaylessa looked at her like she was dumb. "It's counterfeiting, Didi," she said, as if Didi didn't understand.

"I know, I know! It's counterfeiting. You just made it sound like it was worse. You were talking like he's been sacrificing virgins to Asmodeus, or something!"

Kaylessa noticeably recoiled at that. "Didi! What in the world put that into your head? That's why you shouldn't be spending all your time reading books, filling your head with those things!"

Didi clutched her book to her. Maybe for Kaylessa, the real world was full of good people and books were full of evil, but that's not how it had been for Didi. Didi would have never had a sense of right and wrong if it wasn't for books. She never would have known there was any such thing as heroes who fought for justice. That adventurers could rise against and destroy powerful wizards like Didi's mother. That love and friendship were assets, not burdens or weakness or even debts to exploit. Kaylessa didn't know what the world without books had been for Didi, and Didi couldn't explain that, but she had to defend herself and her favorite hobby. All she could say was, "But I – I didn't get it from a book!"

That comment just seemed to bother Kaylessa even more, from the way her eyebrows crinkled, but all she said was, "Okay, okay. Just don't go talking about those things in polite company, and especially don't be accusing folks of that with no evidence. It's time to get prepping for dinner, anyway; go put your book away and head into the kitchen."

Didi did what she was told. Normally, she would have lingered in her room and at least finished the chapter, knowing Kaylessa would be too busy to drag her out. But, she realized, she wanted to make Kaylessa happy. Not because she was afraid of being kicked out, or because she wanted to get back onto her good side after offending her. She just wanted to.

Kaylessa had been kind to her, and she was being kind to Dominic, and... Didi liked her. Even though she was strict and made her do menial chores and didn't like books. She liked her.

She wanted to stay with her, she realized, for a long time. And not just because there was a roof over her head and food on her plate every night.

Maybe even, in the future, when her little brothers and sisters were rescued... they could stay there with Kaylessa, too? All together, like a normal family.

But she didn't dare think about that. She would want it too much and it would hurt too badly that she didn't have it. That she might _never _have it.

Instead, she reserved her pining for something that she might actually obtain – Kaylessa's approval. And, like she'd done after seeing the book in the shop, she went to work at obtaining it. She worked fast and focused, not at the lulling pace she usually worked at while daydreaming about pretty elf boys. She chopped all the onions first, the least desirable task, and set the tables for the guests as soon as the prep was done. When the guests had their food, and the other kitchen staff had sat down to rest and smoke and lay claim to the leftovers, Didi ate quickly without chatting, and then got a head start on cleaning the kitchen.

She stayed later, too. Kaylessa usually dismissed all the staff but the dishwasher, then mopped the floor herself when the dishwasher left. But Kaylessa wasn't there to mop the floor when the dishes were done this time – in fact, she hadn't been in the kitchen all night. So Didi mopped.

Kaylessa arrived, with wet hair, when Didi was almost done. All the staff but the night desk clerk had gone home, and the guests were in their rooms. It was dark out, but there were magic torches on the walls, which provided just enough flameless light for humans to walk through the halls without hurting themselves. For Didi, it was still fairly easy to see. But Kaylessa had to squint for a second before she recognized her. "Didi?" she asked. "What're you doing down here?"

"Mopping!" Didi said quickly, realizing how suspicious she probably looked. "Not stealing food!"

"Mopping?" Kaylessa repeated – suspiciously at first until she realized the floor had indeed been mopped and Didi had the mop and bucket. "Why – thank you, Didi, but you didn't have to do that! I was gonna do it myself, after I fixed myself something to eat. I don't reckon there's much soup left, is there?"

"Oh no!" Didi said, realizing Kaylessa hadn't eaten. "I'm sorry, I didn't think to save anything for you; but there's a little bit!" It was just mostly broth, the kitchen staff having ladled most of the meat and potatoes into their own bowls. "And there's bread! Here, let me get it!"

Kaylessa shook her head and walked towards the stove where the soup had been left. "I just bathed; I won't get the floor dirty."

Didi slid off the counter and watched Kaylessa wearily fill her bowl. She had been covering for Dominic in the stables, Didi realized; that's why she'd had to wash before she could come to dinner.

Kaylessa, seeming to feel Didi's eyes on her, tossed her a glance over her shoulder. "Don't wait up for me, Didi. I'll take care of the rest of the mopping. You head on down to bed. Be up on time tomorrow; we're booked full."

"Okay," said Didi. But she didn't leave.

Kaylessa waited for a second, then turned to face her with eyebrows raised inquisitively.

"But before I go to bed – can I ask you about something?"

Kaylessa kept the same inquisitive look on her face as she carried her food towards the table. "Go on?"

Didi followed her to the table, but didn't sit down. "Well, I was talking to the constable today, and he was saying something about how he thought you were done with kids. And I was just wondering what he meant by that."

Kaylessa swallowed her mouthful of soup. "He said that about me, did he? Well, I don't reckon he meant much by it – just that my own boys up and left town a while back."

"You have kids?" Didi asked. Kaylessa had never mentioned them before.

"I do. Well, did. They ain't kids any more, and I ain't seen 'em in years."

"Why not?"

"Well, they left home for the City of Splendors when they were about your age and haven't kept in touch much. My older son got married a few years ago, a nice young girl. I traveled to Waterdeep for the wedding, had a nice time, but I don't hear from them much besides big news like that. I tried to write 'em a few times, but they never seemed too interested in keeping in touch. So I stopped." Kaylessa shrugged, as if it didn't matter. "They know where to find me if they need me."

"Really?" Didi said. It seemed remarkably ungrateful. "That's not right. They should write to you!"

Kaylessa held up a hand to quiet her. "Now, now. I don't want you to be criticizin' other people and their choices – my sons ain't bad people. We just didn't get along that well. That's how life is, sometimes. I'm not angry about it, and neither should you be."

"I wasn't trying to badmouth them," Didi said, and then before she could even think about what she was saying, she blurted, "It's just that – if I had someone like you for a mother, I'd _never _leave."

For a moment, both she and Kaylessa were frozen. Didi felt her ears stiffen and her face heat up as she realized what she'd said. She'd meant it more as a reflection on the circumstances of her own runaway status than anything, she hadn't meant she _really_ wanted to live with _Kaylessa _forever; Kaylessa certainly didn't wish or intend for her to stay there forever -

Kaylessa stood up and pulled her in to a tight embrace. "Oh, now," said Kaylessa, in a tone of voice Didi had never heard from her before. "You're just a sweet little thing, aren't you now?"

Didi hesitantly reciprocated the hug with one arm. A hand, rough in texture but soft, pressed gently against her head, coaxing it into place against Kaylessa's shoulder.

"You don't need to be worrying about me or my sons, Didi," she said, ruffling Didi's hair. "But I sure am glad I have you – and your brother – to keep me company for now. You're a good girl, Didi."

Didi brought her second arm up to link with the other around Kaylessa's waist. Kaylessa continued to caress the back of her head in a gentle weaving motion. _I should say something back, _Didi thought. But her mind was drawing a blank, struggling to process the mixed signals her nerves were sending. She had the irrational urge to run away. She resisted it, and instead stayed exactly as she was. After a few minute, she relaxed. Her view of the kitchen wall softened into a blur, and her eyelids drooped as affection ran through her veins like warm water.

Kaylessa ended the embrace with a firm thump on the back. "Head on up to bed now. Good-night, Didi."

_I should say something back, _she thought again. But she didn't know how to put her feelings into words, especially not in Common. "Good-night," was all she could manage.

**Author's Note: Nope, Kaylessa is not a "harsh and cruel mistress"; Didi just thought it was unfair that she had to do work. Sorry for those who were confused. (A later chapter will actually explain how Didi and Dominic ended up working for Kaylessa in the first place.) **

**Question of the chapter: How do you show people you care about them? What is your love language? **


	7. wrecked and rotting, Part I

**Author's Note: Hi everyone, sorry for the very delayed update. I wasn't really satisfied with this chapter, but I eventually figured I should just post it now so I can move on, and I can always edit it later. And I wanted to post this chapter this month, because Halloween. **

**This chapter has two more parts. I will post them sometime this month, and then take a month off, because I have decided against my better judgment to attempt NaNoWriMo again. **

**Thanks to anyone who has reviewed. Sorry I don't always reply to them. I usually open them, get really happy, and deliberate for thirty minutes about how to respond before becoming overwhelmed and giving up and then forgetting to do it for weeks and then feeling too awkward to actually reply. …Yeah, my bad and I'm sorry but thank all of you so much anyway. **

"I don't have any more damned books," was the first thing Gaelker said when Didi walked into his shop.

"I don't blame you," Didi said cheerfully. "Clearly, with your limited cognitive abilities, you've had scant exposure to them and struggle to fathom their necessity. The lame, likewise, seldom become cobblers. What I seek is virgin stationery yet unblemished, and bound in leather, if you would."

He squinted at her and gestured towards the corner where the blank journal and spell book lay. "Over there. Urchin."

"My deepest gratitude, kind gentleman," Didi said, amusing no one but herself with her attempt at speaking formal Chondathan. Gaelker's nastiness truly wasn't bothering her today. She was still certain she could best him in combat, but she no longer had the desire to prove that to him. She was in too good a mood.

She was _inspired_.

Everything seemed right in her world. Even though it _wasn't _right and she knew it, it _felt _right. She felt happy, for the first time in a long time. She felt like she had a home. She felt loved.

She knew Dominic loved her, of course. He was her best friend and most reliable ally. But he'd never hugged her close and ruffled her hair. The knowledge of being loved was precious, but it was a different thing than the _feeling _of it.

And even though her heartbreak, her anxiety over her absent siblings was still there, it wasn't quite so overpowering now. Not to the point that it blocked out everything else.

She wanted to capture this feeling. She wanted to write.

She'd once been a avid diarist and budding novelist. Her first attempt at epic-length fiction, a partially finished romance-and-adventure story, that had been left behind when she and Dominic had left home in haste. She wouldn't have had the heart to try to rewrite what she'd lost, even if she'd had paper.

But now she was filled to the brim with all kinds of stories, none of them directly about her life, but all of them about nice things, all of them about love.

She got home with time to spare before the evening chores, and sat down to write at the humble desk in the lobby. The activity around her didn't bother her; rather, it reminded her of home – the nice parts of home, the windy days in the gardens with the younger children all playing together, herself and Dominic on the patio, as Didi wrote and Dominic studied his spells and every once-in-a-while one would interrupt the other, Didi to read him a newly-finished page or Dominic to show her a newly-learned cantrip.

She wouldn't have taken any interest in the small group of adventurers that walked into the lobby, except for the fact that two of them they were handsome young men who could serve as the inspiration for her fictional heroes. Sure, her romantic leads were an elf and a half-elf, and these adventurers were all human, but they were handsome in spite. One man had long, curled hair pulled back in tight braids – the half-elf could have hair like that, Didi decided. The other had soft features and green eyes and a very lean body – the elf could look like him, if she used her imagination.

Kaylessa came to speak with the group while she was admiring the young adventurers. Didi kept her face pointed at her paper, but glanced back at the men periodically as she looked for words to describe her heroes. But Kaylessa, speaking to them in a low voice, bid them to follow her to the kitchen.

This roused Didi's curiosity. She'd never seen Kaylessa invite a guest into the kitchen. Kaylessa kept her voice low, but the group of adventurers, not so considerately, echoed back some of her words in tones loud enough for Didi to hear, if she was still. She heard "something wrong," and "strange happenings," and "Lance Rock" before the men went to rest up in their rooms.

"What did you hire those bounty-hunters for?" Didi asked when Kaylessa returned to the lobby.

Seeming to not have expected to see Didi there, Kaylessa startled. "Not bounty-hunters; I didn't ask them to bring back nobody's head! Adventurers. And why were you eavesdropping?"

Didi's ears went slack. "I wasn't eavesdropping! I just overheard!"

"You shouldn't listen in when adults are speaking." Kaylessa gave her a stern look.

This time Didi defended herself. "My ears are bigger than yours; that's not my fault! Besides, I didn't hear that much, I just heard you say something  
strange and something about Lance Rock. I was just curious."

Kaylessa hesitated. "Ain't nothin' for you to be worryin' about. Rumors, that's all."

"That little girl, the chicken girl – Pell Mandhyver – she was talking about seeing creepy stuff down there, too."

"She's – " Again, Kaylessa hesitated before finishing. "She's not the only one. Rumors have been flying around for years. I haven't been too worried about it, but lately – there have been other bad crowds hanging about this town." Kaylessa's eyes suddenly narrowed as she turned her head to look at Didi directly. "It's not for you to be worrying about or looking into, or even spreading around scary stories about. I only tell you so you can be careful. Stay away from that area, at least until we know what's going on."

Didi had had very little interest in Lance Rock up until now. Kaylessa's admonition had, ironically, sparked the temptation in Didi that it had been intended to quell. But Didi knew better to express this, so she simply said, "Okay."

"Good." Kaylessa's eyes fell on Didi's paper. "Whatcha got there? You writing a letter?"

"Not a letter; a book!" Didi said, excitement bubbling up in her as she thought of her newly-invented heroes. "A love story! It's about these two boys; one is a half-elf and the other one is an elf, and they're best friends, but–"

"Now, you don't need to go writing yourself another book to stick your nose into!" Kaylessa interrupted, hand outstretched in a halting gesture.

"It'll be a good book!" Didi insisted. "It'll teach about good versus evil, and love!"

Trotting casually towards Didi, Kaylessa wore a bemused expression. "You already know about those things, don't you?"

"There's always more to learn!" Didi pointed out.

"The best way to learn about something is to do it. Do good in your life; that's how you learn the value of good. You don't have to write a book about it."

"You can do both," Didi argued. She picked up her journal and held it close, as though cradling an infant. "You can read it when I'm done. You'll see."

"If you say so," Kaylessa said. She peered over at the pages. "Chondathan? I figured you'd prefer to write in Elvish."

"Mmm..." Didi said, thinking about it. "I wouldn't sell many books in Elvish unless I went to Elvish country."

"You're gonna sell this book?"

"When it's done," Didi said. "I'll make a copy and sell that, and use that money to hire some scribes to make more copies and sell the copies in the marketplace."

Kaylessa seemed to not believe her. "All right," she said, seemingly amused. "Anyway, s'about time for the dinner shift to start. Go get ready." A few days passed. Dominic started feeling better, and started working around the inn again. Didi finished her book's first two chapters, and started a third.

Dominic still hadn't let go of the idea of becoming bounty hunters. Didi was still reluctant, but she had to admit they weren't getting any closer to rescuing their siblings by working as inn staff. And she knew it would be best to have some money saved, in case their mother ever found out they were in Red Larch, and they had to skip town.

Didi hated more and more the idea of leaving. She liked Red Larch. She liked Kaylessa. They almost felt like a family now. They spoke more often. Kaylessa asked her about herself more – not important things, just small talk, like "How did you sleep?" or "What have you been up to all day?" Didi wanted to talk about other things, too. She wanted to know what Kaylessa's life had been like before they met, but she didn't ask, because she was afraid Kaylessa would ask about her life. But it was nice, too, to just chat about things that were mundane but she knew Kaylessa cared about her answers because she cared about her.

* * *

After a tenday, the adventurers Kaylessa hired had not come back. Either they had stolen the small amount Kaylessa had given them in advance, or they had run into trouble. Either way, Didi and Dominic resolved that they would be the ones to track them down – and either rescue them, or make them pay back the money they owed. If they were going to be bounty hunters, this was as good a start as any.

And even though Didi hadn't been enthusiastic about the idea of becoming bounty hunters, she found herself in a cheerful mood as the duo set off on the winding path to Lance Rock. This was what Didi and Dominic had envisioned, all those years ago, when they'd first planned to run away. Back when it had been a daydream about a grand adventure, not a matter of life and death. Back when they'd planned to all leave together. Blurry memories washed over her like gentle waves: Didi and Dominic on their bellies in her old room, books spread all around the floor as if to make up a summoning circle. Outdated maps with crudely-marked paths, and scrolls with crudely-planned strategy.

The idea of becoming heroic adventurers, Didi realized now, had always been more of a mental escape than a real plan for a real escape. All the days when Didi and Dominic had met up in her room after midnight, when their mother expected them to be sleeping, were among her most cherished memories from childhood. "I just read about a book about a couple of humans who followed a map left by pirates to an island with buried treasure, but then the pirates found out that the humans found it, and the humans had to pretend their ship sank with the treasure to trick the pirates and get away," said Didi.

"That's a good trick," Dominic would reply. "Write that down." And Didi would write it in her "plan book," squinting in the room barely illuminated by moonlight. Dominic would continue, "What do you think the pirates will be like?"

And Didi would tell Dominic all about the pirate ships in the book - how the crews would be made up of every race from elf to orc, how they would have eye patches and spyglasses and missing limbs and talking birds. They'd continue on one subject until they got bored or until they discovered a gap in their plan they had no solution to.

Everything had been ruined when they tried to turn their daydreams to reality. At ages eleven and twelve, Didi and Dominic had gathered all of their old-enough-to-talk siblings in Didi's room and discussed the plan. They were going to run away. All of them together. And they'd be heroes and travelers and they'd begin their own adventuring guild. They'd been in the process of naming the guild when the meeting had been adjourned by their mother, coming to drag Dominic to one of his training sessions that only he got, because only he was old enough.

That was the end. They'd been having so much fun coming up with guild names that Didi hadn't noticed the look in Drayden's eyes. It must have been a nervous look, an aversion of eye contact. She didn't know. She hadn't been paying attention. She'd never have guessed that Drayden was going to tell their mother about what they'd said.

Didi, identified by Drayden as the mastermind behind the scheme, had been punished by being pinned down on the ocean floor while the waves waxed and waned above her.

And Dominic's punishment for trying to save her had been much, much worse.

Neither of them was quite the same after that. They had changed so much that those nightly secret meetings felt as though they'd happened to someone else altogether.

But the idea of saving someone, of doing something heroic, investigating a "cursed" rock or finding a nice lady's stolen money or maybe even rescuing some trapped innocents?

It made something stir inside her, awakening dreams that, it seemed, had been left on the seafloor when Dominic dragged her waterlogged body onto the rocky shore.

Dominic had been right, Didi realized. They should have done this sooner. What had held her back?


	8. wrecked and rotting, Part II

Lance Rock was an aptly-named, large pike of granite jutting out of the ground as if aiming for the sky. As the pair approached it, they noticed a few wooden signs in front. "DO NOT ENTER LEST YE BE STRICKEN WITH PLAGUE" said one, in barely-legible letters, seemingly carved into the signs with something sharp rather than painted with ink. Another said, "DO NOT ENTER THE DOMAIN OF OREISTE LORD OF LANCE ROCK."

The effect of the signs, ironically, was to alert Didi and Dominic to the fact that there was anything to "enter" in the first place. Lance Rock was solid and too small for anything human-sized to enter even had it been hollow. But there was a wider rock formation just ahead. The siblings shrugged wordlessly at each other and then went to investigate it. Sure enough, there was a hollow spot in between two large gray rocks, barely wide enough to squeeze through, but deep enough that the end wasn't visible.

"Well. I guess we start here," said Dominic.

It wasn't the most appealing path. They hadn't been expecting to go into a cave – they hadn't been trained to defend themselves in a place where their maneuverability would be so restricted. On top of that, the air inside was moist and smelled of decay.

"So. Who's going in first?" Didi asked.

"Not me!" said Dominic, touching his nose as he said it.

"Fine. I'll go. Chicken," said Didi. Dominic stuck his tongue out at her.

The cavern tunnel curved upward just far enough to make the rest of the tunnel invisible from the entrance, then turned down again. It also had the effect of blocking out the starlight, leaving the tunnel so dark that, even with Didi's elven eyes, she could see almost nothing. She plodded along with her hand against the mossy cave wall, feeling out the ground with each step like a cave monster finds its path with its antennae. It was almost a welcome relief when the cavern narrowed to the extent that Didi had to use her hands and knees to walk. It was easier to hold her balance that way, even if it wasn't so appealing to touch.

"Do you hear that? Someone's here," Dominic's whispered voice from behind her after a few minutes. Didi, who has been concentrating entirely on feeling out her path, stopped to listen.

A hum reverberated through the tunnels. It could have been wind or a long, throaty moan.

"That humming? That can't be a _someone_," Didi whispered. "People can't vocalize that long."

"A monster might be able to," Dominic reasoned.

Didi slowly got to her feet, feeling up the damp wall of the cavern as she rose so she didn't bump her head. Her legs felt wobbly. It was hard to orient herself. She turned her head back to see Dominic; limned by some very dim light. But, she realized, part of his outline was missing. The part where her shadow would have fallen over him. That meant the light source, whatever it was, lay ahead.

They went on. The hum soon grew louder. By the time they realized it was accompanied by another noise – slow, rhythmic footsteps, whatever other creature that dwell the cave had heard them, too. The tunnel curved, and the light – still dim–came into view. There was a draft from above; a hole in the top of the cave was letting in moonlight. And the moans turned to screeches as three figured came tumbling towards them, like angry drunks.

Didi's spear was out and plunging through the first creature's midsection before she had time to register what it was but, to her horror, impalement did not slow it: it came at her through the spear, leaving a trail of guts on the spear's handle behind it. She let go of the weapon and jumped back as graying hands came at her face. The other two creatures were charging at Dominic; he clubbed the first one with his staff and then began stirring the air to ready an attack on the next one. Didi turned back to her own assailant; it was half-moaning, half-gurgling and moving, though quickly, in an uncoordinated and awkward way, like a doll in a child's pretend game.

But other than that, it looked familiar.

Didi gasped: it was one of the adventurers Kaylessa has hired to investigate this place, the green-eyed boy.

"You!" Didi said, reaching for the magic with which to infuse her words at the same time as she reached for an insult. "You're... not as cute as you used to be!"

It definitely wasn't the wittiest insult Didi had ever come up with, but with the magic, it seemed to bother the zombie. It moaned as if in retort and lunged at her. Instead of jumping back, Didi dove past it, got behind, and grabbed her spear – it was slick with zombie guts. She gripped it tightly and pushed down on it, dropping into a squat as well. The dull side flew up and hit the zombie in the face, knocking it off balance. In the outer frame of her vision, the zombies crowding around Dominic slowed to a stop as the water in their cells froze.

Didi's zombie foe tried to pivot around and lunge at her, but couldn't maneuver around the spear. It groaned and stupidly tried to break free but, like a cat with a stuck claw, could not figure out that flailing thoughtlessly would not free it. Didi helped it out by leaping back with a firm grip on the spear; it came loose, and the zombie, now lacking the scaffolding necessary to hold itself upright, collapsed into a groaning heap.

Didi wiped her spear on the rock, examining the zombie, which was twitching, but apparently unable to standing. She was hit with pangs of sympathy, not for the zombie but for the boy the zombie had once been. She didn't know how to "kill" a zombie, but it didn't seem right to leave him like this. She looked over at Dominic; he was the wizard and might know something of how to counter necromancy. His own zombie foes were still frozen stiff. But Dominic was hunched over, heaving.

All concern for the zombie lost, Didi ran over to him. She got there just in time for him to vomit on the cave floor.

"Are you all right?" Didi asked him. She let him lean on her for a second to steady himself, but he soon pushed himself off to lean against the cave wall instead.

"Yeah," he moaned. "Just... grossed out."

"Since when are you squeamish?"

He didn't answer, just continued to gasp for air. His deep breathing was ineffective; the cave air was damp and thick with the smell of death.

"Maybe you were stricken with plague," Didi thought aloud, recalling the warning sign outside the cave.

Dominic shook his head slightly. "I don't think so. I think it's just the smell."

"Let's hope," said Didi. When Dominic seemed to have gotten his bearings, she said, "Dominic, I recognized one of those zombies. He was one of the freelancers Kaylessa hired to investigate this place."

"Hmm," said Dominic, with a final huff, before he pushed himself back upright. "Mystery solved then, I guess. She paid them an advance, didn't they? Maybe they still have the cash on them."

Didi looked back at the zombies Dominic had frozen. She was not surprised to see that their bodies had once belonged to the green-eyed man's companions. "What we can get off their bodies is the least of our worries," said Didi. "We should be more worried about whatever did this to them."

"Why?" asked Dominic. He glanced about the cave. "No one offered _us _money to figure out who's here. We should just get out and hope we don't meet them."

"But doesn't it seem like the right thing to do? At least three innocent men were murdered." There had been five originally, Didi remembered. She specifically remembered the boy with the braids, and noted that he was not among these zombies. "The other two might still be alive."

"What if they aren't?" said Dominic. "What if there actually is a plague down here that kills you and turns you into a zombie and they caught it?"

Didi blanched. "There's a such thing?"

"I don't know; maybe! I've heard of weirder things before!"

"Well, if there is a plague, we've both probably caught it, so it would be really irresponsible to go back to Red Larch anyway. We could infect the whole town."

Dominic couldn't argue with that, so he sighed and stepped away from the cave wall. "Fine," he muttered. "I just... _really _don't like zombies."

**A/N: Sorry for the really abrupt chapter break. Part 3 coming soon.**


	9. wrecked and rotting, Part III

They continued on through the cave, this time a bit more cautiously than before. They weren't so cautious to refrain from a whispered conversation. "If I turn into a zombie," Dominic said, "you should burn me to make sure every inch of my body is actually permanently dead and the zombie spell is completely broken. And then scatter my ashes at sea."

"Why at sea?" asked Didi, maybe a bit more sharply she'd intended. Dominic recoiled a bit at her tone. She hadn't meant to sound accusing, but the sea was their mother's idol. It was the only thing their mother couldn't control, Didi supposed. And because it was greater than her, she sought to draw power from it, as though it was her own personal well. That's why she frequently sacrificed people to it.

Didi would not want to be buried at sea.

Dominic only said, "I like water."

The cave narrowed into a linear path, though it was now tilted sharply downward. They had to move very slowly to avoid slipping on the damp ground, and frequently the pebbles they kicked began tumbling downwards. The echoed moaning, which had quieted but not stopped after Dominic froze the zombies, had started to rise in volume again. There was also another light source ahead, Didi noticed; the one behind them had faded into nothing. This one was brighter but smaller, and looked almost more like a candle on the ground right in front of them than something large in the distance ahead.

Dominic had closed most of the gap between them, and kept bumping into her. "Back off a bit," Didi said, when he still hadn't had the sense to do so himself after the fifth collision.

"Sorry!" he said. "I just can't' see you very well."

"Well, I don't think we're that far from the light now." A pause. "What do you think is down there?"

"I dunno, maybe, more zombies and an evil necromancer?" He said it in the same tone of voice one might use to say "duh."

"Do you think the other adventurers might still be alive?" Didi asked. If they were, this might be the night Didi actually accomplished something heroic. She could call herself a hero after that. Officially.

Dominic didn't answer her question. Didi began to plan her strategy for her next zombie encounter, but that soon faded into a daydream about bursting in to the evil necromancer's experimentation room just in time to find the necromancer about to carve into the boy with the braids. Didi would rescue him just in time, and take the boy and his less-handsome friend home to Red Larch and comfort him about the death of his friends and then they would fall in love.

As the light grew bigger, though, Didi and Dominic had the sense to slow down and proceed with caution. The light was coming from an opening in the ground just ahead; the hole was small but the light was so bright it was as though the sun was shining through that opening. As they neared, the low humming sound picked up, but so did other sounds: something half melodic, half a screech, like a newbie's attempt at playing the violin beyond their ability.

Didi and Dominic exchanged wordless glances and advanced while pressed against the cave wall, Didi keeping her gaze straight and Dominic watching their rear for enemies. When they reached the source of the light, a hole which came up to about Didi's knee length, she shot Dominic a glance to confirm he was keeping track of their surroundings, then ducked down to peer inside.

But her long hair saw the light before she did – and something inside took the chance to grab her by it, yanking her down. At the same time, a shadowy figure fell from above; Didi barely glanced it falling on Dominic as a skeletal hand yanked her into the cave. She had no choice but to follow the pull on her neck, but she grappled for her spear in the meantime.

The light, as well as the forceful tug of her head, was dizzying. She glimpsed a high cave ceiling, blindingly bright floating orbs arranged in a line midair, and several more humanoid creatures at various stages of decay ambling towards her. She smacked the skeleton's hand with her spear and its hands fell crumbling to the ground, just in time for her to leap to her feet before two other zombies nearly grabbed her by the arms. The violin sound continued at a faster pace, and Didi got the impression it was no longer intended to sound pleasant.

"Gate crashers! Gate crashers!" The shrill male voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. Didi tried to scan the cavern for the source, but the zombies tugging at her arms were a bit distracting. "Scoundrels! Trying to sneak in without a ticket!"

A gust of icy wind burst through the cavern entrance, pelting her with hail. Most hit her armor, but one hailstone the size of her nose hit her square in the forehead. She yelped and tried to spin around to face her new attacker, but she heard Dominic call out, "Sorry!" and realized it had been him, aiming at the zombies. The distraction did not seem to affect them, though. As though the hailstorm was not there, they dragged her along the borders of the cavern. When the hail stopped hitting, Didi turned back to see Dominic attempting a different spell, but a few other zombies tried to grab him, too, and he was forced to abort his casting and focus on them.

The zombies holding her stopped abruptly, though they maintained their grip. Didi's first instinct was to try to jerk away, but as she drew back she noticed something. Above her, embedded into the cavern wall that stretched towards the surface, was an opening; from which protruded a slight ledge. On the ledge was a human man, clad in tattered robes. On his head was no wizard hat; no, only matted hair, but he held a wand, which he was currently waving in a manner reminiscent of a conductor.

"Who art thou?" cried the human man; the same voice as before, Didi realized, the acoustically-ideal cavern was giving it a resonant quality, making it sound almost divine. "Who are _ye? _More critics seeking to besmirch my name! Begone, slanderers! I've no need of your calumny!"

At a loss, but finally able to look about now that her zombie captors were no longer dragging her anywhere, Didi threw a glance back towards Dominic. But close combat was not his strong point; he, too, appeared subdued. Four zombies held him; one by each hand, one by a foot, and one by the ponytail. He struggled to remain balanced on one foot. Didi cast a glance around the rest of the cavern. More zombies. Most, she realized, were inert, pressed against the cave's walls and turned towards the center as if watching something. Then she noticed the center, how there was a slight dip in the very middle as if this were the world's slightest amphitheater, occupied by two zombies in crudely-sewn, soiled formal wear. The female, in a state of heavy decay, twirled on tiptoes, her feet swollen to an extent that surely would have caused a living person to feel excruciating pain if moving in the same way. The male was fresher and, though wearing different clothing, familiar. It was the adventurer with the braids.

She was too late, Didi thought, but her regret was quickly replaced by fear over the sheer number of zombies in the room.

"We're not critics!" Didi called, looking up at the angry necromancer. "We're fans!"

"Fans, are ye?" the man called back down. "But not fans enough to pay for a ticket!"

"We couldn't find the ticket booth!" Didi called out, thinking fast. "I have the money for a ticket in my pocket!"

The necromancer's brow furrowed. "Security, search her!" Another zombie came out from the crowd by the entrance to the chamber, ambling towards her with awkward thumps. Didi's eyes flickered at Dominic, who was now struggling so hard to remain upright that his leg was trembling, and then up at the necromancer. For each movement the zombie made, the necromancer waved his arms. Like a conductor, Didi thought again, or maybe more like a puppet master. She noted that he hadn't had to move his arms in such a way while the zombies initially attacked them – perhaps those zombies had a spell prepared in advance to attack trespassers.

Not that this knowledge would be much use. As far as Didi could tell, they were in big trouble as soon as this came to blows. There were just too many of the undead enemies.

Her best option now, she supposed was to stall. "You might get more ticket sales if you had better advertising!" Didi called. "It wasn't easy to find this place!"

"It's not meant to be easy!" cried the necromancer indignantly. "This is _art_! True art takes _effort _to appreciate!" He finished his last statement by emphatically drawing down his hand, causing his zombie to step onto the ground so hard its shoe exploded and began leaking body fluids. Dominic, seeing this, seemed to be struggling to hold in his own body fluids.

Didi ignored her own queasy stomach and focused on stalling. "I guess you'd know better than me! You're the true artist here! Very... uh, avant-garde! No one could ever accuse you of being a sell-out!"

The necromancer only grunted as the zombie dubbed as "security" approached her. The necromancer jabbed his hands out and downwards, and the zombie, in turn, jabbed her in the hip so hard one of its fingers snapped and began to dangle uselessly from a very thin layer of skin. Didi pressed her lips together tightly, trying as hard as possible to keep a straight face. Several more times, the zombie, controlled as if by a (not very competent) puppetmaster, jabbed at her while fumbling for her pockets. But the necromancer's magic certainly was not intended to give its zombies fine motor control. The necromancer showed very little concern that its zombie was punching her in the thigh instead of grabbing her coin purse off the belt to which it was tied, but when the zombie accidentally punched the inner elbow of one of the zombies that was holding her and caused it to break away, Didi took the opportunity to grab for her own supply belt. "Here, I'll get it!" Didi said, and before the necromancer could object, she added, "don't worry! I have enough - I counted every copper twice! Let me count a third time. One, two..."

She counted on, stalling for time, eventually switching to her native Elvish so as to reserve every last bit of her processing power to think of strategies. The necromancer at first seemed hesitant, then resigned to the fact that his security zombie wasn't cut out for counting change.

She needed to get away from the zombies. If she couldn't, she needed something that could hit a lot of them at once. There were too many. She was reminded of how many there were by a dissonant hum that kept getting louder; now that they were no longer being mobilized to attack, they seemed to be returning to their instinctual behavior, which apparently included moaning. The acoustics of the room amplified this sound, just like it had amplified the necromancer's voice, and with the horrible violin doubling as an alarm...

Terrible noises. She could _do _something with terrible noises, she realized. There was a spell, one she'd been studying at home. Only when she was alone in the training room, though, with her only victims being glass objects. She'd never practiced it on a person, let alone a zombie. And it had been so long since she'd had any space to practice that kind of spell without harming bystanders. She didn't know if she'd remember.

But it was, most likely, their only shot.

Her flute was tied to her belt. She did most of her spells with words, not music, but the flute helped focus the magic, and it was necessary for this spell. She feigned dropping a copper coin and stooped down, grabbing the flute off her belt with her shoulders hunched over to hide her actions, buy her a few more seconds. Her lips pressed to the flute, but she wasn't supposed to _play _it, she was supposed to channel her magic through it...

Nothing happened. She suddenly remembered those first few days after running away, a constant ache from too many botched teleports, in which she couldn't cast any spell at all. It had taken rote concentration to find the rhythm of the magic in her fractured memories; it had been almost like re-learning everything from scratch, studying her own memories like a wizard might study a spellbook. _I don't have time for this_, she thought desperately_. How did I _do _it? _

And then she remembered.

Sort of.

She remembered something she couldn't have possibly seen.

_She thought she was alone in the library, but she was watching her. _

_She was watching herself. _

_Diana - her real name, the only one she went by back then - looked so much younger, in an orange, elven-style dress. She was practicing magic like she was supposed to be, a book in front of her on the table, her flute to her lips. Repeatedly, she stepped backwards with her left foot, and attempted to direct the spell's energy with her right, drawing her hand from her mouth to which her flute was held with her left hand, and out in front of her, palm inward and her middle finger pointed towards a glass cup on the table. Then, she whistled into the flute. It seemed the missing piece was the length and pitch of the whistle; she changed this slightly every time. _

_Finally, with one sharp, almost angry-sounding whistle, the magic caught on - she could sense it pulsing through the atmosphere. There was a pause, and then an angrier, sharper, _louder _song came in response. It bounced off the inside of the cup, the cup shattered into shards and dust. Pain in her ears, pain but she couldn't leave. And that's where the magic was, in the air with all the glass dust, she had to reach it, she had to channel it - _

As if she had pulled the magic from her memory, she felt it pulsing in her fingers. She rose, stepped back, held her flute to her lips, and whistled the sharp note from the memory - same pitch, same duration. The magic surged out of her hand and she directed it towards the center of the cavern, where the "stage" was.

She'd been worried that the spell, like a few of the other tactics she'd tried, would not work on zombies. She did not have to worry long. The noise, like a church bell against her ear, echoed throughout the cavern and hit everything inside like a round of arrows. It hurt her head. It hurt Dominic. It hurt the rocks. It definitely hurt the zombies. Their moans of protest joined the ringing noise. Some of the zombies seemed to be able to shake off the initial assault, but others collapsed. Some of their heads seemed to cave in, for reasons Didi did not know but assumed had to do with pressure being released via shattered eardrums.

As the magic died out and the ringing faded, a rumbling noise entered her awareness. The thin layer of rock's that made up the necromancer's platform had crumbled; the necromancer and the rocks rolled together in a great heap were sliding down the cave wall. Didi tried to ignore the throbbing in her ears and get herself into a fighting stance. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced Dominic picking up his dropped staff with one hand, rubbing an ear with the other.

The rocks came to a stop, the necromancer rolled over them and into the middle of the zombie crowd, landing on his hands and knees. Didi rushed at him with her spear out.

The trembling man whirled around, so he was sitting on his butt with his hands behind him. Didi put her spear in his face before she could get up. For a split second, Didi registered fear in his eyes, but as he scanned the room and saw in more detail the result of Didi's attack, the fear turned to rage.

"You... you ruined my theater!" the man cried out, pitch and volume raising with each word. "What have you done? This was the only thing I could call my own! The only place I could do whatever I wanted! And you destroyed it!" With the last sentence, he tried to grab Didi's spear; she slipped it from his reach and then thrust it into his shoulder, knocking him back – it wouldn't seriously injure him, but it would make it extremely painful to move. He let out an anguished cry as he followed the spear backwards against the remains of his platform.

"Five men came to investigate this place about a week ago," Didi said, ignoring his hysterics. "You turned them all into zombies. _Why_?" She was pretty sure he was just evil, but she could at least give the man a chance to explain.

The anguish on the man's face twisted, again, into anger. "Is that what this is about? I should have known. You Believers refuse to leave me alone."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I don't cross into your territory; I stick to my own!" the man ranted. "I don't persecute your people; I don't source my actors from your town. And if I did, I would be great! If I wasn't so ethically stalwart, this would be the grandest theater known to mankind! But I've restrained myself. Peace with Red Larch has always been my priority! But now you Believers have gone too far! Overstepping your bounds, sending spies into my territory! I won't tolerate it anymore! I will – "

His voice cut off into a yelp as Didi twisted the spear like a screw. "You killed five people!" Didi declared, "And if you can't give me a good reason for that, that makes you a villain, and I'm going to kill you."

"Do you expect me to beg for my life?" cried the necromancer. "I won't. You've already destroyed my theatre; what else do I have to live for?"

Didi's lip curled. "Fine, then," she muttered. She tugged hard on her spear to free it from the man's flesh, producing another moan of agony. She felt nauseous. She didn't want to kill the necromancer, she realized. She'd come to save, not to kill. This necromancer was clearly evil, apparently a serial killer, and had attacked them first. But she still didn't feel right about it.

It would be her first time killing a person, she realized. She'd seen people die plenty of times before. Her mother killed casually, reciting incantations in monotone, all her attention directed at the sea – almost none on the lives of her victims. A pillar of stone had been built over the natural rock formation that hung over the sea near their home; just high enough to carry out the ritual, but low enough that waves would eventually lick the surface and carry the victim's blood out to sea; eventually too, the body. She was used to watching humanoid bodies decay. She was used to watching people struggle and try to twist away from the knife, until gradually their thrashes would weaken into twitches, then nothing. She'd never liked it. But she'd never had too strong of a reaction. Why did she feel sick now? Where was this empathy coming from; why was it directed at a villain? She wanted to be a hero; heroes killed villains.

The necromancer took advantage of her hesitation, and began moving his hands again to control the zombies. Didi thrust the spear into his heart. He twitched once, then went slack - as did all the zombies. The sound of dozens of zombies hitting the floor resonated through the cavern, then a hushed silence as the moaning ceased.

"Rest in peace," Didi said under her breath.

Dominic, who had been in place behind her, ready to attack at a distance, came running to her side. She shook her spear free, trying not to look at how the necromancer's body shook along with it. He helpfully stepped on the necromancer's chest.

"You okay?" asked Dominic.

Didi stumbled backwards a bit as she gave her spear a final yank. She tripped over a zombie limb and stumbled even more before finally catching herself. "Yeah!" she said when she caught her balance. "Are you?" He didn't look harmed, but she didn't know how badly her spell had gotten him. It was probably worse on someone who wasn't expecting it.

"I'm fine. Just covered in body fluids that had been fermenting for way too long." He grimaced. "Let's get out of here."

"You go ahead." She noticed he looked a little green. "I have to do something first."

Stepping over the bodies as lightly as possible, she made her way to the center cavern, where the braided boy's relatively fresh corpse was now laying on the ground. She wished she could have said he looked peaceful, but he just looked dead.

The necromancer hadn't let him keep his weapons, but he was still wearing the same clothes he'd been wearing the day Kaylessa hired him. In his coat pocket, she found what she was looking for - a sack of coins. The part Kaylessa had paid him in advance. She took it and ran out, not wanting to spend any more time there than she had to.

The walk back was long and mostly silent. The excitement of adventure was gone. She may have killed a villain, but she was not yet a hero, either. She hadn't been able to save anyone.

"Dominic," she finally said, breaking the silence, "I've never killed anyone before tonight."

A long pause. "Might as well get used to it. And that guy was probably spell-mad or something; he was obviously a danger to others. It was for the best."

"Yeah. I know." Dominic had killed someone just days ago. She hadn't thought much about it. "You'd never killed anyone before either, right? I mean, before those bandits?"

A very, very long pause. Finally he said, near inaudibly, "Mother made me do a lot of things."

And Didi's heart broke. Suddenly she was home again, in the hall, in that year after their mother found out about their escape attempt, the year that Dominic had his free will taken away. It had been some variation of _domination _spell, she knew, but she didn't know much more than that. Dominic hadn't liked talking about it. All she knew was that she had lost Dominic that year. Every time she walked past him, she had smile, in hopes that finally, finally, he would smile back; and to every smile he returned a stare of glass.

His eyes were similarly blank now. Lifeless. No wonder he'd reacted so strongly to those zombies. They were puppets with no will of their own – but unlike his, their torment would last their tormenter's lifetime.

Dominic had not been around much, that year he'd lost his free will. Their mother kept sending him off on errands. Didi had never asked him what those errands were. Dominic had never brought it up. He'd never so much as hinted at what their mother had been using him for. Until now.

Didi touched his arm. "Hey. You know nothing she made you do is your fault, right?"

He grimaced and sidestepped away from her. "I know." He fixed his gaze straight ahead. "Please don't touch me until you bathe."

**Another abrupt chapter break.**

**I wrote and uploaded this chapter in October and then forgot to post it for months. Good job, me.**

**Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. **


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